Core Glossary

translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.

Composition

The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:

• The approved Tamil translation and transliteration
• The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
• Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
• Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice

Governing principles

1. Established usage over invention, except where established usage is itself doctrinally imprecise — where Tamil Bible tradition already has a settled, safe rendering (இயேசு, கர்த்தர், கிறிஸ்து, பரிசுத்த ஆவியானவர்), this glossary follows it. The deliberate exception is “God” itself: rather than retain தேவன் (the historically dominant Tamil Bible term, but literally “a deva”), this glossary corrects it to கடவுள்.
2. Distinguish disambiguation from correction — most of this pipeline’s risky-but-established terms (like Punjabi’s ਮੁਕਤੀ) are managed with a mandatory clarifying gloss. Tamil’s God-word decision is different in kind: because தேவன்’s ordinary meaning is itself the problem, not just a source of possible confusion, this glossary replaces the term outright rather than glossing it.
3. Explicit rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why the tempting alternative is wrong, so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule.
4. Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document.

Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry

Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.